Edward Michael Moore v. Byron Nelson, Jr., Chief Judge of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court Leonard Masten, Chief of Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department

Edward Michael Moore, a member of the Yurok Indian Tribe, filed a petition for habeas corpus in the federal district court to challenge a judgment of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court ordering Moore to pay a penalty of $18,508.50 for cutting timber on the Hoopa Valley Reservation without a permit. The petition was filed pursuant to a provision of the Indian Civil Rights Act that makes the writ of habeas corpus available in federal court to any person “to test the legality of his detention by order of an Indian tribe.” See 25 U.S.C. § 1303 . The district court dismissed the petition because Moore was not subject to “detention.” We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Moore is a member of the Yurok Indian Tribe who resides on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in California. On April 11, 1996, Hoopa Valley tribal officers found Moore’s logging truck loaded with timber and other logging equipment near an abandoned homesite on the reservation. An officer later interviewed Moore at his residence. After receiving Miranda warnings, Moore stated that he had hauled several loads of logs off the reservation. Moore was then cited for trespass and for logging without a permit, in violation of 25 C.F.R. § 163.29…